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We are surrounded by invisible networks and immersed in frictionless digital interfaces, but every action on a network and every interaction with a device has a material origin and a real-world effect. In this course we will conduct creative research, using various tools and practices to bring physical presence to the invisible networks and processes around us. The course will include one small project and one final project as well as discussions about the environmental effects of making and operating digital and networked technologies.

A hands-on studio course exploring how interactive media design can emerge directly from the
behaviors, histories, and affordances of reclaimed materials. The class asks: What can we learn
from the objects we already have? How can discarded matter guide form, interaction, and
meaning? Students will work primarily with found, reused, and surplus materials to investigate
how material qualities shape sculptural and interactive possibilities.
Students will hone skills in basic fabrication (wood, plastics, light metal, hand tools) and develop
a sculptural way of thinking grounded in responsiveness to materials. Climate awareness and
technological obsolescence form an important conceptual background: we examine the
environmental impact of fabrication and the cultural logic of disposability while building tactile,
interactive objects that propose alternative modes of making. By the end of the semester,
students will understand how to let material agency inform interactive design and will produce
work that integrates sustainability, form, and user experience.

Calling all writers, actors, cinematographers, directors, designers, dancers, performers, and any other artists who want to understand the creative potential of computation and machine learning: this course is for you. What happens when you open up a computational system, examine how it works, turn it upside down, twist it, and break it? The course will approach artificial intelligence systems not as tools for making something, but as the creative material itself. No prior programming experience is required.

Students will start with hands-on creative coding in p5.js, working from example code and curating datasets of text and images to see how algorithms offer different lenses on the source material. The second half turns to machine learning, providing a foundational understanding of how AI systems learn from data and make predictions. Starting with Teachable Machine and the ml5.js library, students will learn the entire machine learning pipeline by collecting their own images and training a custom classification model. From there, they will work with pre-trained models that track bodies, hands, and faces. Finally, the course will cover language models, and students will learn how to run open-weight models on local hardware, train a custom model with their own data, and build a simple agent. Along the way, students will work with data, probability, and statistics, ask where a model’s training data comes from and who is (and isn’t) represented in it, and critically examine these systems through their own artistic work.

Class time includes discussion of readings and artworks, student presentations, and hands-on coding workshops. Weekly exercises build toward a final project connected to the student’s own medium or passion, whether that is film, dance, drama, photography, music, writing, games, or something else entirely.

This course explores the ways that we perform on and for the Internet. Students will conduct their own performances with the web as a virtual stage. We will study artists’ approaches to performance including early Net Art, collaborative virtual performances, telepresence, appropriation, and social media interventions. We will discuss questions including: are we creating a character every time we make a new profile? Is it possible to ever truly be “live” on a streaming platform? How do the web’s built-in participatory structures complicate/aid these performances?

Note: Performance is a broad and amorphous term! You are encouraged to take this course even if you do not consider yourself a performer or someone who wants to be in front of a camera.

Explore the art and craft of game show design in this hands-on, project-based course. Students will dive into the mechanics of classic game shows, reimagining them as analog experiences, then experimenting with mashups, blending elements of two shows into classroom-ready versions that incorporate custom buzzers, Arduino-based tech, and light fabrication. For the final project, students will work collaboratively to design and produce an original game show, incorporating technologies including, but not limited to projection mapping and live-streaming. Culminating in a live performance in the NYU Performance Garage, this course challenges students to think creatively, prototype fearlessly, and engage audiences in innovative, playful ways.

A Jumbotron is typically defined as a massive digital video display screen used in large arenas, stadiums, and outdoor public spaces for advertising and information—but what happens when we claim these massive screens for creative expression? In this course, students will reimagine large-scale video displays as canvases for public art, experimental video, and collective interactive experiences. Using cameras, microphones, and depth sensors, participants will turn one-way broadcasts into two-way participatory experiences.

Through hands-on projects, students will explore video asset creation, motion design, projection mapping, interaction and live video streaming for large displays. Lectures and discussions will examine the social impact of big screens through the lenses of media theory, propaganda, public space, surveillance, advertising, and immersive design. Working in collaborative teams, students will design site-specific visual experiences, culminating in a public showcase on the 370 Jay Street video wall.

Narrative holds a central role in the discourse of health, illness, caregiving, and disability. It also holds an increasingly growing role in clinical practice, research, and health education. This course examines its role in both Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine. Students will interrogate health culture through readings, observational exercises, and weekly creative practice. Additionally, students will create a final project, in any medium, communicating stories about health, medicine, and the experience of illness.

3D in the Browser provides students with a foundation for designing and creating engaging 3D web experiences from the ground up. Students will learn aspects of 3D web programming through a series of practical exercises – drawing inspiration (as well as photos, video, audio, 3D captures, “gaussian splats” and more) from their own lives together into a series of mini-sites.   Project outcomes might include elements of collage, self-portrait, and experimental interactivity, with a focus on bringing meaningful content together in space, developing a personal aesthetic sensibility and learning to work creatively within constraints.

On the technology side, students will develop a familiarity with the three.js Javascript library for 3D rendering, techniques for gathering and preparing media content for the web, and the creative potential of emerging machine learning / artificial intelligence-enabled approaches to 3D capture (Gaussian Splats) and 3D mesh generation within this space.

Creative computing or equivalent web programming experience is a prerequisite.